Here at Olympia we love hearing from our authors, getting an insight into their lives in writing and asking them what their advice would be to future authors. This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Beryl Nicklas Henshaw about her book!
What has been your highlight of publishing so far?
Receiving the email telling me my publishing date (provisional) I can’t wait for my copies to be delivered.
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
My novel is a family saga spanning two centuries. I found the internet most helpful for verifying facts. This also led me to purchasing books such as Emile Zola’s “The Downfall” about the Franco/Prussian war from a French point of view. In fact, my research was so fascinating it often led me to subjects of which I had no previous knowledge. The first chapters of my book I submitted as my dissertation for my MA in Creative Writing and I was required to list a bibliography. What a wide range of subjects this covered!
How many hours a day do you write?
I found that by using mornings to do chores etc. this left afternoons free for both research and writing. I had no set hours, I am not disciplined enough.
What period of your life do you find you write about most often? (child, teenager, young adult.)
With my current book I referred back to family history. I have written short stories and children’s stories which included childhood and adulthood.
What did you edit out of this book?
Tough question. I wrote very little of a sexual nature, not because I am uncomfortable with the subject but to enable young adults to read it.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
None that I can think of. I do however hope that because of the amount of research I did there will be times when the reader might think “well, I never knew that”
What was your hardest part to write?
I must be totally honest and say the synopsis, where to start when the book is 120,000 words long?
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Read your work out loud, to anyone who will listen but mainly for yourself – by doing so you will pick up on something not quite right.
If you could review Olympia publishers in a few words, what would they be?
Olympia Publishers gave me the opportunity to by-pass the need to find an agent then a publisher as at my age waiting for rejection slips to become an acceptance letter is not an option!
